There is a lot of good info to read in this article in the Los Angeles Times, but I'll try to concisely sum it all up for you. In as nut shelly a recap as I can muster up, the story goes a little something like this:

There's this evil French Kenyan Marxist liberal tree-hugging progressive California billionaire who also happens to believe there's such a thing as climate change. He's doing what he can to block that infamous disaster-in-waiting project, the dirtiest oil on earth brought to you by the Keystone XL "tar sands" pipeline, because he's no dummy, and he's a no-dummy with a whole lot of money.

And thanks to our ludicrous campaign finance laws, part of that stash o' cash is being used to influence national elections on behalf of environmentalists and the Democratic party. Or as I like to call them, people with foresight. Take that, Koch brothers. The Times calls him the "liberals' counterpoint" to the Kochs. Hey, it's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it.

[I]n [Tom] Steyer, liberals have a billionaire on their side. Like the Kochs, he is building a vast political network and seizing opportunities provided by loose campaign finance rules to insert himself into elections nationwide. In direct contrast to them, he has made opposition to fossil fuels and the campaign against global warming the center of his activism.

The former financier is an unlikely green icon. Steyer built his fortune with a San Francisco-based hedge fund of the sort that drove protesters to occupy Wall Street. Some of the investments that landed him on the Forbes list of America's wealthiest went into companies he now says are destroying the planet. Adversaries and, in private, at least some erstwhile allies call him a dilettante.

Yet, unlike many others in a parade of super-rich Californians who have made forays into politics, Steyer has proved himself skilled at bringing attention to his cause and himself.

He's racked up some impressive victories, which you can read about in the Times piece.

He may not be every die-hard liberal's cup of political tea, but for those of us who have been concerned about the lack of one percenter lefties who are willing to compete with all those filthy rich conservative donors and activists, this is welcome news.

The Supreme Court interprets the Constitution as existing solely to protect private property rights. We will therefore not get Big Money out of politics until we scrap that abomination and begin again with the Bill of Rights as our guiding document.

Centurion

We on the left despise the Koch Brothers and the grave harm their billions bring to the
political landscape. I agree, because of Citizens United, that we need to fight fire with fire. At the same time, we must not give up on the fight to get big money out of our politics forever. We must also ask, is this man's ideology any better for America than the Koch Brothers' twisted values? Sadly, we can't afford to proceed with caution today. But we have to keep our eyes on tomorrow.

damspam

Not all wealthy people are psychopaths, sociopaths, or greed junkies.. Some actually have a heart and soul. Now is the time they need to stand up and be counted.